Thread: How Will We Prove the Identity of New Legal Aliens?

Immigration Bill: How Will We Prove the Identity of New "Legal" Aliens?

http://counterterrorismblog.org/2007/05 ... l_we_p.php

By Michael Cutler
May 17, 2007 05:04 PM

I often like to say that a camel is a horse that was designed by a committee; it ain't pretty and smells worse!

While compromise and consensus are essential to achieve agreements in Washington with 435 members of the House of Representatives, 100 Senators in the United States Senate and a President leading this polyglot collection of politicians, the idea that our security could be compromised is absolutely not acceptable, especially as our nation continues to fight a war on terrorism.

Assuring that aliens who participate in a Guest Worker Amnesty Program do not have to worry that their information might be furnished to other law enforcement agencies is a virtual invitation to commit fraud! As an INS special agent I was often unable to provide critical information to law enforcement officials from other law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, DEA and local police, even if the alien in question was a suspect in a murder or major drug trafficking organization, if the information was contained in a file created in conjunction with the amnesty of 1986. Yet while politicians claim that this new amnesty program is nothing like the disastrous amnesty of 1986, it is increasingly appearing that what they want is to recreate that absolute disaster that led to the greatest influx of illegal aliens in the history of our nation!

There are two basic questions that must be answered before our governments seeks to implement any program which would provide millions of illegal and undocumented aliens with official identity documents under the auspices of a Guest Worker Amnesty Program:

(1) Can the government effectively implement such a program?
(2) Should the government implement such a program?

If it is determined that the government is unable to implement a program that possesses integrity where millions of illegal and undocumented aliens are concerned, then it is unnecessary to ask if we should implement such a program. Let us consider the basic facts. DHS has no way of proving their names or even their nationalities. They cannot prove when, where or how they entered the United States. Consider that when you attempt to make a purchase in a department store, you are required to provide your driver's license to ascertain your identity even if you are paying by credit card. When former Mayor Giuliani states that we must provide tamper-proof identity documents to millions of illegal and undocumented aliens the question that no one asks is, what name should be put on those cards? The issue is not to produce cards that can not be altered our counterfeited, an issue of some concern, but rather, what is the true identity of the alien seeking to participate in the program?

If our country was to implement a guest worker amnesty program and issue identity documents to these millions of illegal aliens whose true identities are unknown and unknowable, then these unknown people would be able to obtain driver's licenses, Social Security cards and other forms of identification in false names. We know that the 9/11 Commission determined that the terrorists who attacked our nation used false aliases to conceal themselves and their malevolent plans in the months leading up to the attacks of September 11, 2001. They were not alone in this. When you look at a criminal history of most criminals you are generally first struck by the many alternative identities that the criminals use in order to hide in plain sight. For a criminal or a terrorist, the ability to change identities is the equivalent of a chameleon that changes coloration in order to conceal himself.

Let me make this as clear as I can; simply running a fictitious name through a computer database will not yield meaningful results. If a terrorist, for example, uses a false name, that name will not set off any alerts when it is run through the various terror watch lists or "No Fly" lists. It is also impossible to look at a person and be certain as to his true nationality. I spent 30 years at the former INS and I can tell you that there are people from the Middle East who look Latino and that there are citizens of Latin America whose ancestry goes back to Asia.

As you know, I am opposed to any Guest Worker Amnesty Program that would enable the millions of illegal aliens who are present in our country today to receive the ability to remain in the United States and work. There are many reasons I oppose this, starting with the Amnesty of 1986 which led to the greatest influx of illegal aliens in the history of our nation. However, even if you believe I am wrong about this, you must ask yourself, especially in this perilous era, should our government implement a program that endangers national security? The bottom line is that a Guest Worker Amnesty Program would require that our government issue official identity documents to people whose true identities are unknown and unknowable and that, in and of itself, should be seen as the "show stopper!"

There have been many reports issued by the GAO and the Office of the Inspector General about the failings of USCIS, United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency of the Department of Homeland Security that adjudicates all applications for a wide variety of immigration benefits. Fraud has been found to be rampant throughout the immigration benefits program. There are fewer than 4,000 special agents at ICE who are responsible to carry out all of the enforcement and investigative missions within the interior of the United States where the immigration laws are concerned. There is no way that so few agents could even begin to attempt to create a program that contains even a sliver of integrity. The Guest Worker Amnesty Program represents the prescription for a national security disaster!

Immigration Bill: How Will We Prove the Identity of New "Legal" Aliens?

Great question especially since many law enforcement officers can't even ask legal status of those arrested!